


Pain Is Inevitable

by Zaniida



Series: Zaniida's Birthday Requests [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: (that's not the same as family-friendly), Agony, Despair, Galaxy-friendly, Gen, Hallucinations, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Implied/Referenced Torture, Sleep Deprivation, futility
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 10:57:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20308360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zaniida/pseuds/Zaniida
Summary: Birthday Request:Lokiwhump.  Have a short offering to get the creative juices flowing!  This is Loki in the Void, betweenThorandThe Avengers, just meeting Thanos for the first time, and already broken enough to cave.(Note: I'd be just as happy with Finchwhump (POI).  Other characters whose whump would be quite welcome: Anthony Marconi or Elias (POI again), Ben Linus (Lost), Kevin (WtNV), Eliot Spencer (Leverage), Spencer Reid (Criminal Minds), Sherlock or John (Sherlock), Simon (Firefly), Nightcrawler or Gambit (X-Men), Spike (BtVS), Winchester or Mulcahy (M*A*S*H), or (from variousStar Trekseries) Garak, Bashir, Odo, the Doc, Kes, Geordi, Chekov, Sulu, the new Spock, the original Spock, 7/9, or Data.)





	Pain Is Inevitable

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rabentochter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rabentochter/gifts).

> My birthday's coming up in about two weeks (August 31st), so it's time for a prompt! As usual, I'm aiming for short fics that don't balloon into giant projects, hence the short deadline and uncomplicated idea. Gimme some [whump](https://fanlore.org/wiki/Whump) to enjoy! I'd currently prefer Lokiwhump, but Finchwhump is always fun, and there are many other characters for you to choose from in the description up there.
> 
> You are free to follow up on my fic here with the "Comfort" side of the equation, but this was just a one-shot to get y'all started, and I don't expect to expand it.
> 
> Oh, and August is [Nathan Ingram Month](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17256416), so do consider him as well. Nathan can be whumped like the best of 'em! Poor guy. Not even death can save him.

Pain lances up through his broken ankle with every panicked step, but he focuses his energy on moving forward, keeping his balance, biting back the screams. The Chitauri delight in the hunt; even knowing he’ll never reach the exit, Loki doesn’t want to call them straight to his position, let them know which route he took this time. There’s nothing left to aim for but expanding these few precious moments of illusory freedom.

The hunt is better than the other games.

When he’d thrown himself into the abyss, he’d expected a measure of peace after the pain. He’ll never be welcomed into Freya’s fields, let alone Valhalla—what right has any monster to dwell with the Aesir, even among the dead?—but at least his misery would end. Yet the void is home to monsters of its own, far worse than the childish tales he’d been raised on.

They like him, because his body insists on healing itself. Most of their captives die too quickly, but with him they can have _fun_.

His magic is weak here, cut off from the roots of Yggdrasil. In the spaces between Realms, it’s almost a different reality; he can’t set up portals, can’t pull a blade from his pocket dimension to fight (or to escape this living nightmare for good). His illusions flicker and fade, not that they were ever much use against a species that relies so heavily on scent.

They rarely let him rest. He’s been awake for weeks now, losing all track of time—maybe it’s months, probably not years, not yet—and the nearest thing he has to a respite is going a few hours without a major injury.

At the start, he’d scream out for his brother, his mother, for Heimdall, as if they could rescue him. As if they might care to try. But even if Heimdall can peer this deep into the void, there’s no guarantee that the Bifrost can reach, let alone that they’d risk true Aesir warriors to save the disgraced foundling prince. Once he’d let himself accept that, he stopped calling.

(_Sometimes he sees her—his mother—but he knows it’s just in his head, brought on by starvation, dehydration, overheating, lack of sleep. She should have been a comfort, but all he sees in her eyes is the knowledge of how badly he let her down. He doesn’t talk to her, can’t find the words. He doesn’t even look at her anymore._)

The chorus of clicking grows louder, and he chokes down a sob as he turns to evade it for just a while longer, but he’s brought up short by a giant figure and—his stomach lurches—the slim, stooped creature with the covered face.

“You see, my Lord?” the Other asks, as though they had _expected_ Loki to be there. “He perseveres through pain, and his body recovers quickly from our tests. I believe he can survive the transfer and still be conscious on the other side.”

Loki falters and steps back, turning to continue his hopeless run—but the bone shards in his ankle offer no support, and he tumbles to the floor. Panting and trembling, he drags himself backwards as the huge man slowly closes in on him, a calm and almost gentle smile on his face.

“Do you wish the pain to stop, child?” the man asks, sinking down to a crouch before Loki.

There’s no right answer. There’s never a right answer, because he has no control here, no way of getting them to stay their hand, not even for a moment.

The man’s smile widens, and there’s more compassion in his eyes than Loki ever saw in Odin’s. “Pain is inevitable,” he says, “inescapable.”

Loki lets out a sob because he _knows that_, bone-deep, but he’d been trying not to admit it to himself. It’s the last hope he had here, that someday there might be an end. But there won’t be—can’t be—and he doesn’t have the strength left to deal with that awareness.

Reaching out, the man grasps Loki’s broken ankle and begins to squeeze. Instinctively, Loki tries to pull away; the agony washes away every other sensation for a long moment. When he comes back to awareness, to the throbbing heat of the injury he’s just made worse, his head feels oddly clear.

“You cannot be free of pain,” the man continues, “but the struggling makes it worse. Do you see? Accept the pain, and let it mold you into a more useful shape.”

The man releases his ankle and uses the same hand to cradle Loki’s face. “Do you want to be useful, child?” he asks.

Staring up at wrinkled purple skin, Loki sees white hair, an eyepatch, a frown.

_No, Loki_.

His face crumples, and he lets go.

“_Please_.”

**Author's Note:**

> Rabentochter, you liked my _Breaking Point_, so I figured you'd likely enjoy this as well. Hope you did! Thanks for commenting on my work /^_^\
> 
> And for the rest of you, I appreciate your patience with how slow I update, and how I'm now trying to juggle two full fandoms with some in-betweeners as well (as a dear friend tries to get me hooked on _Good Omens_ while another still wants me to explore _Lost_… sigh). I haven't abandoned anything yet, and I'm still working (on multiple fics) as often as I can manage. Hope to post some good updates soon!


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